http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/CatBrook/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from CatBrook en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:42:14 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:42:14 +0000 So here I am back home almost 4 months since my last blog. I was worried about coming home after so long away. I already knew how it felt after being away for 19 months on a previous trip. Losing the freedom and excitement of travel and replacing it with the mundane the routine and lots of pitying lsquowelcome back to the real worldrsquo comments is not an easy experience. Add to this http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-400310.html We're heading home tomorrow 664 days after we left the UK. We spent one year teaching English in Korea and a further 9 months travelling through 15 countries on three continents. Our route took us from England Thailand Hong Kong South Korea Japan South Korea China Vietnam Laos Thailand Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah Thailand New Zealand Chile Peru Bolivia Brazil Ar http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-368723.html We thought we'd take a few days out of Buenos Aires to go and see neighbouring Uruguay just across the river. We booked the slow boat to cross from B.A. to Colonia del Sacramento. Normally taking a slow boat means cheaper older and generally a bit shoddy. This slow boat however was what appeared to be a brand new ferry complete with shops a cafe an outside cocktail bar and plenty of space to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/blog-367109.html So to continue with our Iguazu falls experience....we checked into the Hotel Inn in Puerto Iguazu Argentina lorded in backpacker circles as being the best hostel in all the land we were excited to discover that it was indeed rather posh. The hostel is a converted casino with a huuuuge pool and a poolside bar providing a rare bit of luxury in our impoverished backpacker existence ok so I don't http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-361458.html We arrived in Brazil on 'el tren de la muerte' the death train. The guidebook had warned us to expect a journey from hell with long delays in mosquito ridden swampy areas uncomfortable seats and an aisle crammed with contraband. There are many theories about how the train got its name. A common one is that it was named after the numerous deaths of passengers who decided to sit on the roof be http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-357682.html We arrived into Copacabana a Bolivian pilgrimage town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. Twice a day and especially at weekends the central plaza fills up with vehicles for the Blessing of Automobiles. The cars buses and trucks are generally new or about to undertake a long and hazardous journey not that there's any other kind in Bolivia. The vehicles line up outside the church decked out in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-350028.html We clacked and clanged our way across the Peruvian border on an ancient onecarriage train. We set off from Arica Chile clearing immigration at the tiny station and arrived into Tacna Peru where the train proceeded through the center of town behaving more like a bus than a train navigating a roundabout and braking for a truck that wasn't planning on stopping. The train seemed illequipped http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-343061.html At 2p.m. we were having lunch in Auckland and riding the subway in Santiago. We suffered the consequences of jumping back in time 17 hours and felt exhausted and wide awake at all the wrong times. It seems that there are few South American cities that are deemed a good place to start your travels on the continent and Santiago is classed among them due to it being relatively safe and developed. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-334324.html It is a well known fact that backpackers in New Zealand are expected to do some truly terrifying things during their stay. So with a very short time in New Zealand we got straight in there and found an activity that is possible on even the shortest of timeframes. Our decision to go skydiving over the Bay of Islands was made even easier because of a promotional rate making it the cheapest place http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Bay-of-Islands/blog-328726.html The biggest hassle I encountered on the ThaiMalay border was the frequent offer of cake. We walked across at Sungai Kolok and found the usual assortment of overeager taxi drivers and an unusual Malaysian cake sweet stand. The cakestand man gave us the impartial kind of advice that the taxi drivers wouldn't the location of an ATM and how to get a bus to Kota Bharu. We were with a Swiss guy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-324186.html Fantasies of a Thai beach holiday have no doubt sustained countless people through months of mindnumbing workplace drudgery. Mine got me through a long Korean winter spent shivering in unheated classrooms. Admittedly I felt slightly less deserving of a holiday after being more or less entirely hammock bound during our time in Laos but landlocked Laos is no substitute for the idyllic Thai island http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-316347.html A 100 guaranteed way to eradicate stress and revitalise go to Laos. Doctors should forgo prescribing medicine and give out Laos visas instead. If you've just been in neighbouring Vietnam you will find Laos is the perfect tonic of peace and tranquility to your hawker headache. Everything slows down and nothing seems to matter. Life revolves around simple pleasures a breeze as you swing i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-304340.html Just a short walk across the ChineseVietnam border and I went from 'Miss' to 'Madame' with the occasional 'OY' to keep me grounded. Six years on from my first visit to Vietnam and the motorcycle is still king. Not just a motorcycle they also function amongst other things as sofas tables family saloons taxis and removal lorries. 'Xe om' motorcycle taxi guys have the ability to make a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-295547.html We were ditched unceremoniously on the outskirts of Dali new town with no idea as to where we were. A girl on the bus made some effort to help us by talking at us in Chinese and pointing at Chinese signs. The bus driver revved his engine and eventually shouted at her to get back on the bus.We spent some time on a couple of local buses and finally made it into the old town with the help of a bus http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-286771.html Got to stop moving so fast and writing so slow. A few weeks have passed and we are now in beautiful Guangxi Province in the stunningly located and stunningly annoying town of Yangshuo. We've come here via Fenghaun and Hong Kong both of which deserve their own entry but due to lack of time and crashing computers aren't going to get one.Our trip to Fenghaun was the most pleasant yet despite it be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-280956.html We left for Xi'an in the 'hard sleeper' compartment of the train. This was our first experience of Chinese rail travel and it was fantastic. The beds were big and comfortable with 3 stacked on top of each other facing another three on the opposite side. If you are on the top bunk it's really high up and with no ladders you have to climb up monkeystyle using footholds that flip down from the w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-274683.html Palyondong post office started the proceedings in befitting style by shutting earlier than promised and thereby rendering us unbelievably excruciatingly laden for the first part of the trip. We arrived sweating at the post office to see not so friendly looking roller shutter doors and cursed the fact we would have to start 'backpacking' with 3 extra boxes of stuff meaning our total weight was up http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-272440.html So this is it. Wersquore out of here.lsquoThe Hermit Kingdomrsquo lsquoThe Land of the Morning Calmrsquohellip..lsquoThe ROK.rsquoWhen we said we were going to Korea the initial response invariably involved one of the following wordslsquoWarrsquolsquoDangerrsquo lsquoNuclearrsquolsquoWiredrsquolsquoDogrsquolsquoNicersquolsquoWhyrsquoOk so itrsquos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangnam-do/Changwon/blog-268040.html Our approach to our recent trip to Japan was relaxed mainly because itrsquos only 3 hours away by boat. We didnrsquot put too much thought or planning into the trip it just kind of happened and everything fell into place with very little effort. We were surprised to find a country very different from its neighbour. Itrsquos hard not to compare the two countries especially when Koreans http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kyoto/blog-206862.html Wersquod been planning on a trip to Jeju Island for our summer holiday but as it turned out so had the rest of Korea. By the time we got round to booking there wasnrsquot a single seat left on flights or boats so we decided to head up to Seoul for a more active break. I really like Seoul as a city it hasnrsquot got any jawdropping sights but it has got the buzzing energy of a NorthAsian http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-190974.html